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The psychology of blame

One of the things we heard repeatedly from people we interviewed in New Orleans was that Katrina wasn't the problem; it was the levees. Though the storm was horrible, they rode it out just fine. The flood changed everything. Psychologically, for those coping with loss, the difference is between blaming nature and blaming humans. And now a report from Berkeley engineers suggests the levees broke not because of the overwhelming levels of water, but because of design flaws and political cost-cutting. Human error.
May 23, 2006 : 9:35 AM
: link

Comments

Did you read this WaPo article about pre-Katrina projects and the La congressional delegation's highly successful efforts to get money for ... everything but hurricane control?

There was also an editorial around then, also at the Post, about how the Army Corps of Engineers squelches dissent and builds large pork projects that are very often completely wasteful, and very often environmentally devastating.

And yet the ACE somehow manages to have good PR.
posted by Anonymous Benoit : May 25, 2006 12:53 PM : link to this comment  
Cost-cutting or not - The levees would have failed eventually anyway. The earth doesn't care how much you spent, or how deep the pylons were driven. Time is on her side. I guess "it was bound to happen" doesn't sound good when you're running for re-election.
posted by Blogger Andy : June 09, 2006 3:25 PM : link to this comment  
You have an interesting blog here feel free to check mine out at
http://wwwpsy.blogspot.com/ and my other blog is at http://wwwmoviescom.blogspot.com/
posted by Blogger Ryan : June 23, 2006 12:22 AM : link to this comment  
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Moira Burke

Psst! This is the blog of Moira Burke, a Ph.D. student in the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

Rife with derivative pop culture blather, this site occasionally features thoughts on social psychology, usability, aesthetics, and the general meanderings of someone figuring out the meaning of life. Won't you help me find it?

my first name @ this domain name

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